I had a new student on scuba for the first time tonight. We spent last week on swim tests(1/2 hour) and skin diving and snorkeling skills(1 1/2 hours). This evening at the end of two hours he was swimming around in fair trim, in midwater, clearing his mask, and recovering his reg while swimming. We spent the first 1/2 of the class working on buoyancy skills and performing mask clear, reg recovery, and weightbelt off and on while horizontal and neutral. He did touch bottom on 4 of the 7 times I had him remove and replace the belt. Next week he'll do better I'm sure. By week 7 I'm confident he'll be swimming and in the pool have his buoyancy changes come from breath control as opposed to using the power inflator to any real degree.
It was not difficult to get him to this point the first night on scuba. It did require repetition, surfacing to give advice and explain how he could improve just a bit more each time, and the WILLINGNESS to work for what he wants. I'm willing to work as hard as I can to educate a competent, skilled, and safe diver. What I will not do is waste time with someone who just wants to "get by" and learn "just enough". My time is too valuable for that. I would have to say that I am satisfied with the level of diver training I see in a few cases. Unfortunately those cases are the exception. This weekend I used two OW classes to illustrate to an AOW student the lack of training that lets new people ( sorry I can't call them divers) "get by". Two classes, two different instructors, 6 and 8 students. One had a DM the first day both the second. No one was clearly buddied up. The dive times were around 20 minutes. I know as we were doing 45-60 minute dives and they were getting 2 in to one of ours.
There was no buoyancy control to speak of among them. They were being led down and on their tours in single file with 4-8 feet between divers. Vis was 3-10 feet with 15 thrown in here and there. I saw students on 3 occasions surface alone and had no idea where the instructor or rest of the group was. Granted it was not ideal with 35 degree air temps on Sat and 2 inches of fresh wet snow on Sun, but the water was 71-74 degrees. I could not watch the weight checks for more than a minute. They were the "here's 25 lbs, see if you sink" variety. And yet every one of them got a card. I would have still had them in the pool. Am I satisfied with this? Hell no, and anyone who is should be ashamed!